Instincts Draconian
by EvilFuzzy9
Summary: "Yes, ultimately even dragons are slaves to their instincts. This is true for dragons born and bred, and this is true for their children adopted and nurtured." A collection of drabbles/oneshots about dragon slayers and their instincts. Genres may vary.
1. Grooming

Dragon.

Such a simple word; a singular noun with two syllables, written six letters long – 'D', 'R', 'A', 'G', 'O', 'N'. It is a word of relatively innocuous etymology, tracing back, through its earliest roots, to the Proto-Indo-European _derkesthai_, meaning "to see clearly". In other words, "dragon" is "that which sees clearly," or "the one with the (deadly) glance".

A curious way of describing them, no? Great, flying, scaled beasts of peerless magical power and physical strength. Roaring, whirling, storms of muscle and sinew and fang and talon. Living engines of destruction, the seven deadly sins embodied in living flesh – _avaritia _given form, _luxuria_ given reason, _gula_ given wing, _invidia_ given sight, _acedia _given security, _ira_ given focus, and _superbia_ given majesty. The elements incarnate, immortal and unassailable. Cunning and might beyond that of men, in a vessel great and terrible beyond description.

_Dragon. _It's such a simple, unassuming word, and yet what it describes is so grand and magnificent... and terrible and fell, as well. But, in the end, even this meandering mess of an introduction must give way to a story, or as much as it can be called such. Because once you strip away all the flowery prose and poetic language, you will find that even dragons are but animals, and all animals must obey their instincts.

Yes, ultimately even dragons are slaves to their instincts. This is true for dragons born and bred, and this is true for their children adopted and nurtured.

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**First Entry:**

**Grooming**

Makarov Dreyar, diminutive senior citizen and immensely powerful wizard, groaned at the sight before him. Massaging his temples, he spoke.

"Cana, child," he began, addressing the (very) young brunette in the sweetest tone he could manage under the circumstances, "I know you may think it's 'cute', but—"

"Hey now, master, don't be too hard on her," interjected Wakaba from the sidelines, where he was sharing a drink with his longtime friend and partner-in-crime, Macao Conbolt. "It _is_ kinda cute, after all."

"Yeah," Macao chimed in. "It's the sorta thing you'd take a picture of to put in the family photo album." He paused, no doubt thinking of his own son, little Romeo who was still just an infant. "Hell, I remember just a few years back about how a _certain someone_ spent three straight months obsessing over his 'precious little grandson' and following him everywhere with a magic camcorder..." he trailed off with a meaningful glance at the wizard he most respected.

"Oh yeah," Wakaba grinned, his pipe threatening to fall from his mouth as he did so. "I remember that... And I _also _remember that very same _someone_ harassing everyone he came across to watch that damned portable projector doohickey every time he got footage of the boy so much as picking his nose on the movie lacrima."

Macao laughed heartily at that recollection. "Yes! It was awful! Ha haha!" He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. "Ahh, the day Gildartz 'accidentally' destroyed that blasted thing was probably one of the best days of my life... It was definitely one of the most peaceful, that's for sure." He chucked.

Wakaba, chortling, nodded his head in agreement.

Master Makarov glowered petulantly at the two. "You two just don't appreciate that sort of thing," he said. "But once you reach MY age, you'll learn just how precious such moments are."

Wakaba and Macao looked at each other. Then they looked at Makarov. As one, they gave him an identical pair of shit-eating grins.

"Really?" Wakaba queried. "Well, then, show us how much you appreciate these moments."

Makarov blinked, doing his best impression of a fish out of water as his mouth opened and closed uselessly. They had him trapped. _Macao and Wakaba_ had just outwitted him. Him, Makarov Dreyar, third master of Fairy Tail and one of the Ten Wizard Saints!

It was shameful, really. But there was nothing to be done for it–at least, nothing that wouldn't result in massive property damage, two impudent wizards in the ICU at Saint Elimine's, and a tedious lecture from the council chairman, Archsage Nowitt Ar Tellal the Hermit (a crotchety, dried up recluse of a wizard who was said to have been studying magic since before the rise of Zeref – a generally fairly obvious exaggeration, but the man was still well over a century old and borderline senile, so his lectures tended to go on for forever and a day as he often what he had and had not said, and thus usually ended up repeating himself several times before finishing)–so he sighed and resigned himself to trying to find something something "cute" about this situation.

But it was so hard to do, when the newest guild member, little Natsu Dragneel, was splashing about, naked as a lark, in a large maple-wood barrel of some exceptionally expensive imported liqueur that was traditionally reserved for special holidays when it would be added to the list of beverages for sale in the guild bar for sale to the more festively-inclined guild members (and occasionally some of the bolder and/or crazier Magnolia citizens looking for discounts on good booze and better service) who would always start popping out of the woodwork around those times of year. Thirty thousand jewel worth of high quality alcohol just... _wasted_. It could have brought a tear to old Makarov's eye if he would have let it.

He did _not_, however, let it. After all, how would he ever be able to... _appreciate_... the scene before him as something cute if all he thought about was how much money was going down the proverbial drain as the young, pink-haired child bathed in the liqueur? Shaking his head, Makarov struggled to think of positives to this situation.

If he calmed down and thought about it logically, he was sure to figure out some way to salvage the sweet alcoholic liquid. Perhaps by filtering it through a block of wood... Or maybe exchanging it with another guild... Heck, if he looked through his library, he would not be surprised if there might be one book among his many tomes and grimoires that happened to contain a spell of some sort to make the booze as good as new. Yes, if he did a search through his cooking themed spell books, like _Culinary Conjurations_, _Enchanted Edibles_, _Grimoire Gastronomia_, or even _The Timeless Taste of Transfiguration_, then he was certain to find some way to salvage the sweet, sweet liquor or, failing that, slap together a DIY spell based on what he _could_ find...

_'Yes, that should work...'_ he thought with a satisfied nod. Having finished with that, he turned his attention back to the mischievous Natsu. Just in time for the lad to leap out of the barrel. _'I'm just glad Erza isn't here at the moment,'_ he mused wryly as he watched the boy dancing about in an attempt to dry himself._ 'She's a sweet enough girl, deep down, but it seems like she still hasn't come to accept the boy as a part of the guild, and I doubt that these antics–charming as they may be–would do anything to endear him to her. ... though Gray would probably be thrilled with this.'_ He chuckled softly at that thought, and at the resulting silly mental image of Gray declaring Natsu his "Nakedness Buddy". The corners of his lips quirked upwards.

Oh, how he had needed that. Porlyusica kept telling him he needed to smile more if he wanted to stay healthy, but after what had happened with Ivan, it had gotten so much harder...

He shook his head to clear it of these thoughts. No! He had to think positive. He had to stay optimistic! He could not continue to let every little thing get to him!

Just then, Natsu, having dripped off most of what had to be dried, suddenly wreathed himself in flames to finish drying off. While standing in a puddle of (flammable, obviously) alcohol.

Next to a large barrel filled with alcohol.

Needless to say, the whole mess lit up the night sky on New Year's Eve. The resulting fireball was one of the biggest, brightest, and hottest that had ever been seen inside the confines of the guild hall.

As for the mess afterwards, well... if nothing else, it managed to convince Makarov that Cana Alberona was to never be allowed within a hundred feet of another babysitting mission as long he still lived, and that Natsu was not to be let anywhere near anything even remotely alcoholic until he either turned fifteen or learned that fire and alcohol tend to mix a little _too_ well.

**FIN**

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><p><strong>AN: Welp, that was a good... ahh, three or maybe four straight hours that I spent typing this up. Man, it's a little scary how quickly getting my ADHD medication refilled can turn around my productivity. Now if only I could focus that creativity towards some of my neglected, preexisting works...**

**On another note, this is my first Fairy Tail fic, my second fic of 2012, and my fifty-first fanfic ever posted. Yay?**

**Now, as for notes on notable things in the chapter. There is a Fire Emblem reference somewhere in the drabble. Those who find it get an imaginary cheese wonton (the ones at the restaurant where I work are supposedly **_**delicious**_**, though I don't really care for them; the filling, if I recall correctly, is a mixture of cream cheese and cheesecake filling, which means they're actually sorta more sweet than cheesy, and my other family members **_**love**_** them) and a sense of satisfaction at picking up a reference to a videogame that was, until recently, honestly rather obscure in English-speaking countries. Also, the name "Nowitt Ar Tellal" (roughly prounounced "know-it are tell-all [Tellal being pronounced like Jellal]") is my own invention, as far as I know, that I came up with over a period of several days while at work. It's honestly a fairly lame pun, and the character I originally invented the name for is one that, while nice for my own idle FT-themed musings and imaginings, would be rather awkward to fit into any FT fic I could write.**

**Lastly, I'll be adding installments to this as I write them. The lengths, genres, and even ratings will doubtlessly vary, and this collection is not a high priority of mine, so unless I get an overwhelming* demand from the people for more, it will be updated solely at my leisure. **

_*** "Overwhelming" is a relative term. **_

**TTFN and R&R!**


	2. Marking Territory

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Second Entry:**

**Marking Territory**

Jose Porla, master of the wizard guild Phantom Lord, sighed contentedly. It was a fine day, one on which he was happy to be alive. He had a good book, an empty schedule, and a hot cup of tea. There had not been so much as a whisper of the exploits that damnably pathetic Fairy Tail guild's "exploits" in over a week, and Phantom Lord was experiencing a prodigious influx of mission requests. His recent meeting with his... "investors"... had gone swimmingly, resulting in a record surge of funding which had _tripled_ the all important expansion, renovation, and maintenance budgets, and the expert engineers he had hired reported that, with this extra capital, the planned... "additions"... to the Phantom Lord headquarters could be completed in as little as two more weeks.

Yes, it was a fine day. A lovely day. A day where you were happy to be alive. It was a rare perfect day, and Jose was determined to enjoy it in a well-earned leisurely repose.

Nothing could ruin this day.

"Monsieur Jose! Monsieur! Monsieur!" cried Sol of the Element Four, popping up quite unexpectedly from the floor of Jose's study, "Non, non, non, non, non! Monsieur Jose, Monsieur Jose, I simply cannot abide this travesty! Non, non, non! It is utterly deplorable, simply unacceptable!" The slim, eccentric earth wizard's face was inches from Jose's own.

Jose ignored Sol, focusing instead on the book in his hands as he reclined (with statuesque-as-ever-posture, of course) in his luxuriously furnished armchair.

The Great Earth, seeing that he was being ignored, stepped back from Master Porla. Looking uncharacteristically uneasy, the usually bombastic mage nervously fiddled with his monocle. "Non, non, non, non, non, non..." the man muttered, neurotically pacing back and forth across the study, his voice uneven. He looked almost _haunted_, muttering under his breath and occasionally twitching.

Jose frowned, inwardly lamenting as he felt his "perfect day" slipping through his fingers. Anything that could get one of his Element Four, his pride and joy as a guildmaster, whom he had handpicked from amidst the common dregs and personally trained and cultivated to become the elite of the elite, this badly out of sorts was clearly a serious issue. Because as eccentric as they were, the Element Four were nonetheless not the sort to be easily unnerved.

With a quiet sigh, Jose regretfully marked his page and set the book on his desk. Taking a moment to school his face into his preferred expression of subtly condescending disinterest, he said, "What is it, Sol? What is so dire that you must interrupt me in my private study, after I explicitly stated that I was not to be bothered today under any circumstances?"

It was all said in a perfectly casual, conversational tone, but Sol could easily see the gravity of what his master and mentor was saying.

Gulping fearfully, shivering and sweating as he nervously cleared his throat, the francophilic, self-made gentleman said, "O-ouis, monsieur... It... It is about the recent changes to my living arrangements... More specifically, your decision to have me share my quarters with young Master Gajeel..."

Jose cocked an eyebrow. Good grief, was the Great Earth Sol of Phantom Lord's Element Four seriously complaining about having to share his room? Good lord, he knew the man was a bit of a prima donna, but_ this...?_

"... repairs will cost three million jewel..."

Jose's train of thought abruptly ran off the rails and fell off a cliff. "... three... million... jewel..." he practically whimpered. Those words, which under different circumstances would have tasted like honey, were bitter and foul to his tongue. He shuddered.

Shaking his head, he spoke back up, saying, "Three million jewel in repairs..? What on earth happened?"

"It was that hellion! That _enfant terrible_ you saddled me with! That damnable Redfox!" Sol shrieked. "He has shredded all of the furnishings with those claws of his! The hardwood! The carpeting! The drapery! The antique portmanteau! Oh, _sacre dieu_, **especially** the antique portmanteau...! The things he did to it... _Non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non..._ The_ bête_ _noire_ of furniture everywhere!" he wailed.

And Jose felt like joining him.

Three million jewel. THREE. MILLION. JEWEL. Covering this would set the renovations back by over a month! That dragon slayer had damn well better be worth it.

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><p><strong>AN: Here's another installment of ID (can you guess the meaningful abbreviation I was going for with the title of this collection?), this time starring the Vegeta of Fairy Tail, "Black Steel Gajeel". If you're curious about how this was about "Marking Territory", then just read up on feline territorial behaviors (not that felines are the only ones who do it like that, just that they're the only ones I can recall off the top of my head). It's more destructive, but less unsanitary, and best of all it can be made funny without having to resort to toilet humor. And, of course, that sort of behavior fits Gajeel to a T.  
><strong>

**TTFN and R&R~~~!**


	3. Roosting

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Third Entry:**

**Roosting**

Robaul, long deceased creator of the ultra-inversion magic Nirvana, was at the end of his ropes. That young girl, Miss Marvell, was proving to be quite a handful, and the self-made leader of the made up wizard guild Cait Shelter was well out of his depth in dealing with her. Partly because of how spirited she could be at times, and partly because he had simply not had any contact with another human being in nearly four hundred years.

Though, upon reflection even if he _had _had more recent experience in dealing with people in general and children in particular, it probably would not have been much help in this matter. After all, first generation dragon slayers tended more often than not to adopt the mannerisms and habits of their mythical mentors, so human or not, they at times thought more like dragons than they did humans. And one did not argue with a dragon once it had its mind set on something, even if the "dragon" in question _was_, in reality, just a cute little girl. But Robaul, even in death, was a stubborn man, and this stubbornness meant that he would not rest until he had at least TRIED, dammit!

It also probably helped that he had the fictitious members of Cait Shelter to go into the line of fire for him.

"Wendy!" one of the illusory guild members, a hefty, shirtless black man named Ab Darnell, shouted up at the roof of the fancifully designed building that served as both the master's living quarters and the guild's center of operations, "Please come back down from there! You're worrying the master sick!"

"Yeah!" shouted another guild member – the vociferous, confrontational Carrie Sidh-Cutty, a curvy, rosy-cheeked redhead dressed more like some lusty pseudo-medieval barmaid than any official guild wizard. "It's dangerous up there, ye daft lass!"

Wendy, peering over the side of her makeshift nest on the roof of the elder's house, looked down at them. The expression on her face was filled with all the false, wide-eyed innocence of a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "But it's so nice and comfy up here..." she meekly protested, her words barely audible to them down on the ground "And it's the closest spot to the sky in the whole guild, too..."

Robaul, standing slightly between and behind the two illusory constructs, sighed. Normally Wendy was just the sweetest, most agreeable little girl there ever was, but at times she could prove utterly obstinate – albeit in a very polite way.

Looking up at her, he was reminded of another youth from long ago, back in the ancient days, long before he ever made the mistake of creating that Nirvana...

_"Get down from there, you crazy woman!  
><em>

_"I dun wanna!"_

_"I mean it, blast you!"_

_"Thbbpt! Then come up here and make me,_ _Dummy Robaul!"_

_"You...!"_

He smiled sadly at the recollection. That was long in the past... He had all but forgotten about it, and yet... And yet, as he stood there, looking up at young Wendy cutely peering down at them, her eyes shining in the lamplight and her dark blue hair blending in quite nicely with the darkening dusk sky, there it was as clear as day. Even centuries upon centuries of time passing could not wash away that memory, it would seem – not so long as he had before him a living, breathing reminder of those happier days...

_'Dragon_ _slayer...'_ he thought as he looked into Wendy's eyes and saw therein a spark of something grand and primeval, an ancient force of nature lying dormant, and an incredible magical power patiently awaiting its realization. Growing pensive, he mused to himself. _ 'I wonder... Are you up there somewhere, watching her? Or have you chosen to be aloof? ...Grandine...'_

He shook his head. _'Ahh, but I suppose it doesn't really matter, now, does it? She's here now, and you are not. Your daughter, and your legacy... Perhaps it was fated that she should end up under my care... Or perhaps it was planned.' _

His smile widened. He chuckled softly as his small frame shook with the mirth building up in his gut.

"Ha hahaha!" He laughed heartily, the sound erupting from his mouth and reverberating through the quiet evening air. "Naaabbuuurrraaa!" he cheerfully bellowed, rolling his tongue on the 'r'. "Very well then!" he declared pleasantly. "If you wish to sleep up there for the night, then so be it!"

"What?-!" Ab and Carrie exclaimed simultaneously, looking at Robaul like he had lost his mind. "But, master—!"

Robaul held up a hand, silencing her protests. "Yes," he said, his tone now solemn, "I know you wish to protest this nabura. After all, it is a long way to fall for someone her size, and there is no shelter up there from the weather should it rain or snow..."

He paused for dramatic effect, before concluding: "... so I will join her up there, and make sure that nothing nabura happens to her!" proclaimed boisterously, causing Ab and Carrie and the other illusory guild members to face-fault.

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><p><strong>AN: Here's another entry of ID, this time starring the cutest little Dragon Slayer and Fairy Tail's token moe loli, Wendy Marvell, who is just plain **_**adorable**_** no matter what she's doing. I'd been thinking of doing a GaLe installment for the sake of my first reviewer, HeartGold12, but then I realized that I had actually had yet to write an entry starring Wendy, which is an oversight on my part, considering that the listed main characters are **_**Natsu D. & Wendy M.**_

**Also, on the subject of main characters, I've noticed that so far these entries, as they are turning out, seem to be focusing more on the reactions of the people around the Dragon Slayers than on the actions of the Dragon Slayers themselves. Which honestly is maybe the best for what I'm trying to do, since this way I'm not just writing them about the same three characters over and over. But what do you guys think? (I know y'all are out there – this fic has gotten something like 400+ hits in the six days it's been up, which is utterly ridiculous for most of my other fics, discounting ONNHc (because that one is like 120k words long and on the update alert lists of well over twenty people), but I suppose that's just the kind of traffic difference that exists between the fanfics of a fairly popular series like this and of a relatively more obscure one like **_**Hayate the Combat Butler**_**).**

**As for the implications made in the above entry of Robaul having been acquainted with Grandine, or else someone connected with her, in the distant past, well... it's honestly pretty much just a bit of incoherent, wacky fanon I made up on the spot while writing this, and it will probably never be mentioned again. ...so, yeah.  
><strong>

**TTFN and R&R!**


	4. Mating Calls

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Fourth Entry:**

**Mating Calls**

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><p><strong>Content Warnings: This entry contains bad scat-singing on the part of one Gajeel, as well as general GaLe shippiness written by someone who doesn't personally ship GajeelLevy, and even a slight, one-off bit hinting at possible off-screen Natsu/Wendy naughtiness (which I **_**do**_** ship, albeit very casually).**

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><p>"Shoopy-de-beep, shoopy-de-bop, bippity-bop-bop, bam bam BAM~!" Gajeel scatted loudly, dressed in a white suit and hat ensemble complete with a guitar and some cool shades as he strummed inexpertly on his instrument of choice. He was outside on the lawn of Fairy Hills, the women's dormitory building owned and operated by Fairy Tail for female guild members to live in, provided they were able to pay the price. "Hippity-hop-hop, boopy-de-bow, boopy-de-bow, boopy-de-bow-wow!"<p>

For the past hour and a half, Gajeel had been standing outside the window, serenading the apartment's inhabitant with his... unique... style of song. The sound of it was loud, incredibly so – far too loud for how early it was. His voice, as always, had a certain harsh quality to it, like the sound of grinding iron or scraping steel. His song was... unpleasant... and far too upbeat for that hour, and if he was singing a specific melody, then it was one wholly unfamiliar to the residents of Fairy Hills.

Luckily, most of the tenants had some way or other to tune out the iron dragon slayer's exuberant singing, and those who did not were mostly fast asleep and undisturbed by the racket. That is, save for the intended target of the song, young Miss Levy MacGarden.

The slender, blue-haired solid script user groaned as she pressed the pillow over her head, trying to block out the awful noise. Like all her other attempts at muting the cacophony, this failed miserably.

Frustrated, she threw the pillow across the room. It went WUMPH against the opposite wall before falling down to the floor with a much more muted sound that could not be heard over Gajeel's noisy, noisome caterwauling.

Honestly, she really did like him, but the fellow simply _could not_ take a hint. No matter how she phrased it, no matter how clearly she told him that she detested his singing, he invariably seemed to walk away from these conversations with the impression that she liked having him howling outside her window like a man possessed. **She did not.** His singing was terrible. It was uninspired. It was loud and obnoxious, and it did not impress her in any way, shape, or fashion.

... ... ... And yet...

_"Yowza, wowza, can-can-bowza!" _

Levy sighed. Unable to get back to sleep right away, but having nothing better to do at this hour, she simply laid in her bed and listened as the man who admired her–the man whom she admired–gradually shifted from crooning his personally written 'love songs' into... well, she was not entirely certain _what_ to call it. It was not singing, not exactly. There were no lyrics, for one, and besides that the sound was decidedly not something of human origin. It was like a sort of lowing or howling, almost, only deeper and _larger_, like the thing producing it was a creature of far greater size and scale than any common, terrestrial beast.

The sound of it was harsh, in a fashion, and rough, like everything else about Gajeel, and the pitch was low and rich. It was a strange, almost otherworldly sound – not unlovely by any means, unlike the (presumably) young man's usual singing, but just... _different_. It was unlike anything else Levy had ever heard, except perhaps for what she had overheard of Natsu and Wendy that one time she had entered the younger (looking) girl's flat uninvited... But even that was only a **slight** similarity – a similarity in the fundamental "language" and "grammar" of the "songs". Aside from that slight commonality, they were as different as night and day (or iron and fire, as it were).

Levy smiled softly as she let her ears soak in the sound. The sound of Gajeel's "singing" (not to be confused with his _singing_) ringing in her ears as she drifted off into sleep always seemed to guarantee that she would dream pleasantly and awake perfectly refreshed, resulting in the caveat that, while Gajeel's regular old _singing_ was bad enough to be considered a war crime in some countries, the special "singing" that he only did for her was one of her favorite things. So it was a real pity that Gajeel did not seem to draw any sort of conscious distinction between his _singing_ and his "singing".

_But_, Levy supposed as she sailed away into the realm of sleep, sometimes you just had to take the good with the bad in a relationship. And, at least in this case, as Gajeel's eerily beautiful crooning eased her worries and enveloped her in a precious warmth, the good far outweighed the bad.

Even if she still hated being woken up at two in the morning.

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><p><strong>AN: Well, there's another entry, rough as it may or may not be. Ordinarily I'd probably be more earnest about improving a chapter before posting it, but my laptop, which has been hovering just within the realm of usability for the past month and a half, finally decided to abandon any remaining pretense of "functionality" and shit itself earlier today, resulting in what any even half-way savvy Windows end-user knows and fears as the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" (bsod, for short). I was able to successfully boot it up in safe mode, but I have no illusions about its remaining lifespan. Between fall damage compromising the power supply, the subsequent repairs to the power supply incidentally causing a disconnect within the in-built mouse and keyboard (forcing me to plug in an external keyboard and mouse in order to be able to use the laptop) as well as fucking up two of the five USB ports, the slap-shod repairs to the power supply degrading to the point where I can't move the laptop more than a few inches this way or that at a time without upsetting its connection to the power cord and subsequently having to **_**very tentatively**_** futz and fiddle with the plug until the connection is restored, the laptop getting infected with motherfucking Windows 7 2012 Antispyware (a downright **_**nasty**_** trojan that has a earned a special place in my heart among the things I hate most in the world), and McAfee Antivirus removing the virus only to apparently cause permanent damage to the hard-drive or something, seeing as how my computer can nary ever restart successfully these days, resulting in it starting up startup repair (which takes forever to finish and has yet to actually fix a damned thing), and having to use and abuse system restore from under Advanced Recovery Options (but only **_**after**_** Startup Repair finishes and informs me that, once again, **_**it failed to fix the problem**_**) just to start the computer successfully. I never even shut it down any more unless I absolutely have to, but McAfee Virus Scan is infuriating in how it will occasionally detect a trojan (and it's always the same fucking ones in the same fucking places) and prompt me whether to restart now or later. Neither one is a good choice with my computer as it is. **

**The "Restart Later" option means that it will invariably and unceremoniously shut down the computer, regardless of whatever I might have been doing at the moment (I have lost SO MANY browsing sessions to this bullshit move that it is not even remotely funny). And then it will (**_**attempt**_**) to start the computer back up. Except that successful start ups with my laptop are rarer than a blue-fucking-moon these days and so I'll have to endure the **_**SLLLOOOOOWWWW**_** startup repair (WHICH NEVER FIXES THE GORRAM PROBLEM) and then, after that is done, select system restore and a restore point (none of which are much older than a month at most, by this point). And sometimes even **_**that**_** won't work on the first try, forcing me to go through the whole fucking process all over again (**_**including the slow, unskippable startup repair!**_** *shakes fist*), sometimes as many as three or four times before the system restore **_**finally**_** sticks. **

**"Restart Now" is largely the same deal as "Restart Later", except that it has the decency to give a chance to save whatever I was doing (backwards, innit?) and gives me an actual "OK" button to click before it restarts. Also, it, for some reason or other, has a noticeably higher chance of a **_**successful**_** reboot than "Restart Later". But this is mitigated by the fact that, once I start back up doing whatever I was doing before the interruption, I will eventually get **_**another**_** prompt telling me that McAfee has detected **_**another**_** trojan (or sometimes the same fucking one!), and repeat above steps until it ****inevitably**** fails to restart properly. By the way, I feel I should mention that, the windows these prompts appear in? Can't close em 'cept by pickin' "Restart Now" or "Restart Later", can't move 'em, and they're always smack dab in the middle of the screen, super-imposed over everything else. **

**So... yeah...**

**Sorry about the obscenely long rant, but I REALLY needed to vent, and here was as good a place as any. Also, credit for inspiration for this entry goes to this fic's first reviewer, Heart Gold something-or-other (too drained to bother with checking).  
><strong>


	5. Habitat

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Fifth Entry:**

**Habitat**

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><p><strong>Content Warnings: Erza Scarlet possesses a perfectly sound understanding of the concepts of "decency" and "modesty" and "personal space" on a theoretical level. Putting those concepts into practice, however, is something that continues to elude her. As for whether or not this ctually plays any part in the plot of this entry, well... you'll just have to read and see. :p<strong>

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><p>It was hot. Oh yes, very much so. Terribly, dreadfully hot. It was sweltering, suffocating, oppressive. The room shimmered in a mirage, the heat so intense that it caused the air itself to become like a continually warping and shifting series of lenses, bending and refracting light to produce natural optical illusions wholly removed from any kind of magic.<p>

She brought a hand to her forehead, then took it away.

It was covered in sweat.

She sighed. It was just too damn hot. Even for her, this torture was too much to endure for long. How in God's green earth did Natsu even get his apartment so bloody hot in the first place?

Erza shook her head, trying to ignore the sensation of beads of sweat rolling down her brow. Her hair was frizzling and frazzling in the dry heat, and her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth. The inside of her preferred magesteel cuirass felt like an oven, and her organs felt like they were slowly being cooked. She was sweating all over, and the moisture was collecting in the most uncomfortable places.

If it were not for Lucy's lectures to her on propriety and decency (which she had started getting after a certain incident involving a coed bath and seventeen simultaneous cases of moderate-to-severe blood loss), Erza would have just stripped down naked then and there, to hell with the consequences. And even _with_ those lectures in mind, it was still dreadfully tempting, what with how awful the heat was. Honestly, Natsu's utility bills had to be _astronomical!_

All in all, her first impression of the dragon slayer's new living quarters in Magnolia proper was that it rather evoked some of the more classical depictions of Hell. At the very least, stepping into the modest one bedroom apartment certainly _felt _like walking into a lake of fire, and the faintly underlying smell of sulphur and brimstone did nothing to diminish the comparison.

Erza massaged her temples in an effort to stave off the heat-induced migraine that was making itself known. She then shuddered, feeling suddenly light-headed. Her vision swam with blurred spots and streaks as she looked around the room for a chair so she could sit and wait out the dizzyy spell without having to worry about losing balance and hitting her head on something–even if she was a supremely skilled swordswoman and a witch powerful enough to be considered on par with one of the Ten Wizard Saints, she was still human, and concussions were never easy to deal with. She felt dizzy and nauseous in this heat, and her armor, which was feeling much heavier than it should have, was not helping matters any.

After a few seconds of searching, she spotted a raggedy, moth-eaten recliner that looked more like it belonged in a landfill than in someone's living room. It was sitting off in a corner, and by some stroke of Providence it was located right next to a window.

Thanking her lucky stars, Erza staggered over, pried open the window (luxuriating in the feeling of the light breeze), and plopped herself right down, _ex_-changing her armor into her dimensional storage and e-_quipping_ a bathtowel specially enchanted with a minor "Cold" spell that allowed to stay chilled at all times. It sometimes paid to be a little paranoid, and Erza's preparedness skills could put a boyscout to shame.

Though... it seemed that she had grown some since the last time she had used the towel. Had she really been so small only three years ago? It was astounding how much bigger she had gotten. Luckily, with a bit of elbow grease and careful shifting of her breasts (it was times like this that made her curse her generous endowments and envy Wendy and Levy) she managed to _somehow _finagle the towel into preserving something resembling modesty. Though, from how tightly she had to squeeze to get the towel to wrap around her annoyingly large chest, it felt like doing anything much more than breathing would be out of the question if she didn't want to end up sending Natsu to the ICU of St. Elimines... again.

Well, she was only there in the first place to let Natsu know that Master Makarov had insisted on the team taking a paid, month-long vacation. It was more to keep them from getting the guild into any more trouble with the Council after their last mission ended up leveling the good half of a fairly influential count's estate than anything else, but a paid vacation was a paid vacation.

It also helped that Lucy, after crunching the numbers, had declared in no uncertain terms that they would actually be making more money than could be earned in a month from anything less than three consecutive SS-class quests, based on average payment rates. And there were only two wizards in the guild capable of doing something like that with any realistic odds of survival, and even Natsu was not so hardheaded as to believe that they could possibly match up to Gildartz or Master Makarov at their current level.

And so Erza waited for Natsu, focusing on the pleasant chill of the towel against her skin and doing her college best to ignore the sweltering heat in the apartment. She waited.

And she waited.

And she waited some more

_Finally_, after what felt like hours of lying nearly insensate in the recliner, Erza heard footsteps.

Looking up, she saw neither Natsu nor Happy (though Happy's footsteps were typically all but silent, as was befitting such a feline entity), but _Wendy_. Who was wearing a bath towel identical to her own, glowing blue runes and all. The only difference was the fact that Wendy's towel was actually sized properly to cover her and preserve her modesty.

Erza almost greeted the girl, but she stopped when she realized that Wendy was talking to someone. And then she was treated to the sight of Natsu _also_ wearing nothing but a bathtowel, but in his case this was honestly only a little more revealing than his usual attire of shorts and a loose-fitting vest.

"Man, Wendy! You were right! I couldn't hear nothing outside the room!" the salmon-haired dragon slayer gushed excitedly. "I wish I could do something like that! Where'd you learn a spell like that anyways?"

Wendy blushed at this praise. "It was nothing, really," she murmured modestly, "All I did was make a bubble of empty space around us. Sound can't travel through a vacuum, after all, so it was really simple to do once I got the hang of creating empty pockets in the air," she explained quietly.

Natsu chuckled nervously, sheepishly scratching his head. "Heh heh, well, I'm not sure I get what you're saying, but it sounds awesome!"

Wendy beamed.

Then she noticed Erza. "Oh!" she yelped nervously, all to aware of the bigger girl's current state of undress, and her own as well. "I'm so sorry, Erza!" she apologized. "If I'd known you were waiting out here for him, I wouldn't have kept Natsu as long as I did...! B-besides, I-I should be going, anyways... Charle must be worried sick..." she stammered nervously, clearly uncomfortable. "And I wouldn't want to keep you from Natsu..." she said, eyeing Erza's voluptuous figure with some unidentifiable emotion flickering in her eyes.

But Erza was having none of that. "Nonsense!" she declared, a decidedly 'Fairy Tail' look in her eyes as jumped out of the recliner, either not noticing or not caring as the action caused her towel to fly off, leaving her stark naked.

Wendy's eyes widened, and her blush deepened. "I... I... I should _really_ be going..." she whimpered, feeling awkward enough for all three them.

"I won't hear of such a thing!" Erza stated firmly. She then knelt down to look Wendy in the eye, taking the other girl's hands into her own. More softly, but still with just as much authority, she said with a perfectly straight face: "You have my blessing."

She then stood back up, faced both dragon slayer's–apparently either oblivious to or unperturbed by Natsu's nosebleed–and asked, "So, when is the wedding?"

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><p><strong>AN: This entry of ID (has anybody figured the meaningful acronym, yet?) is the first fanfiction-thing I've written a paper-and-pencil rough draft for in a while, discounting some **_**Om Nom Nom, Hamster-chan! **_**chapter segments and a few abandoned concepts and drabbles. As a result, I wasn't as sure at first as to how it's length would compare to the other entries, but looking now at what I've got down in the the WordPad compared to what I wrote in my notebook, I get the distinct impression that I was overshooting by quite a bit as, discounting points where I expanded on descriptions, the paper-and-pencil rough draft had enough content for one and a half entries due to going off on a completely different tangent somewhere in the middle (that I might end up using as a base for another entry somewhere down the line), so after editing and all that, it's still about twice the length of some of the other entries.**

**Also, I'm getting the feeling that Natsu/Wendy is becoming my new favorite sorta-crack pairing.**

**And, yes, I know that the punchline is completely unrelated to the entry's theme of "habitat", but once I got the plotbunny/idea for Wendy showing up in Natsu's apartment (and yes, I know he has a shack in the woods, but for the purposes of this entry let's assume that after being neglected for seven years it simply collapsed the second Natsu opened the door) wearing nothing but a towel, the rest just wrote itself.**


	6. Rutting

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Sixth Entry:**

**Rutting**

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><p><strong>Content Warnings: Contains general foul language, my attempts at "creative" insults on the parts of Natsu and Gajeel, and some violence as well as a touch of implied sexual situations. Let's see how long I can stay within the bounds of this fic's 'T' rating. *Herp-a-derp* <strong>

**Also, it sort of got out of hand while I was writing and wound up rather longer than even the previous entry.**

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><p>In a barren wasteland dozens of miles from any sort of civilization, two figures stood across from one another. They were each eyeing the other, sizing one another up and testing, probing for weakness. They were like rival bulls in anticipation of a clash, slowly moving about in a circle, occasionally shouting out a barb or insult in an attempt to get under the opponent's skin.<p>

They were of human-shape, to be sure, but there was an aura about them of something decidedly NON-human. Their eyes, though they held hints of human sapience, seemed clouded over as with a fog of bestial instincts. They were growling lowly and snarling, their stances loose yet tight as they continually moved about in a circle, their repeated tread wearing a round rut into the rocky soil.

Off to the side, safe behind a wall of glowing runes, was a group of several young women and a few men. They watched the proceedings in obvious anticipation, and there were more than a few individuals recording video of the proceedings as jibes and jeers were passed between the two rivals.

"Grr! Iron-plated jackass!" snarled one, his white scale scarf blowing in the same wind that lightly ruffled his salmon pink hair.

"Pfeh! Fire-spewing idiot!" derisively snorted the other–the one with black hair and what looked to be either piercings or small bolts lining part of his face.

"Soft-scaled jackass!" the pink-haired one, Natsu Dragneel, retorted, the heat of his temper causing flames to dance across the naked skin of his arms and lower legs.

"Lukewarm gnat!" Gajeel Redfox shot back, taking a bite out of a small piece of twisted scrapmetal, noisily chewing as iron scales appeared and began spreading across his skin.

Natsu growled. His fists, tightly clenched, were wreathed in brightly burning flames. He was gritting his teeth and the hairs on his neck were standing on end.

Gajeel sneered, finishing off his snack. His skin was by now nearly completely covered in dark blue-gray scales, and he had his arms crossed in front of his chest. He was standing tall, lording his height advantage over the Fire Dragon Slayer as he taunted him.

"Ya ain't good for nothin', ya useless flamer!" he crowed, spitting a chunk of chewed-up scrap iron onto the ground at Natsu's feet.

Natsu hissed, pupils dilating as he lunged forward, lashing out with a clawed hand at the breast of the Iron Dragon Slayer's shirt, the tips of his fingers twisted into a shape more like talons than anything else. The flames enveloping his hand traced the arc of the swipe as he tore and singed the dark-blue fabric, scoring thin, glowing horizontal lines in the scales that had spread to cover even Gajeel's chest.

"Go to Hell, you frickin' shitty rust-bucket!" Natsu spat, pivoting on his heel as he raised a burning leg to kick at the object of his ire. "_Fire Dragon's Talons_!"

Gajeel smirked, easily catching Natsu's leg with his hand, the fire little more than a nuisance to the Dragon Force-augmented limb. He squeezed, tightening his grip on Dragneel's calf, causing the steel claws adorning the tips of his fingers to punch through the skin, drawing blood that quickly evaporated as the fire engulfing the limb intensified with the growing force of Natsu's frustration. "Gi~heeheehee..." he chuckled darkly. "Nice try, _Salamander_, but it's too little too late," he sneered, digging his claws in even further.

Natsu hissed, and the fire covering his leg flared up brighter and hotter, forcing Gajeel to shield his face with his free hand and slightly loosen his grip on the limb. Seeing this, and noticing scales covering Gajeel's hand starting to glow a dull red, Natsu felt his determination surge anew. With redoubled effort, he forcibly yanked his leg out of Redfox's grip. Ignoring the gashes in his calf from where he had torn the limb from his opponent's claws, he again lunged forward,

Caught off guard by Natsu's sudden burst of strength, Gajeel swore, skipping back to avoid taking a Fire Dragon's Elbow and Fire Dragon's Iron Fist combo straight to the face. He had seen Natsu punch holes wider around than he was tall through enough walls, bunkers, and small mountains with that move to respect its destructive power. Now if only the person _using_ the moves was not such an unoriginal dumbass...

Narrowly sidestepping a massive stream of white-hot fire emitted from Natsu's palms–some new move Natsu had come up with after reading some old comic about a bunch of kung-fu wizards in outer space or something, that he called the "_Fire Dragon's Turtle-Destruction-Wave_[**1**]" (the 'destruction-wave' part made sense, but what the fuck did turtles have to do with anything?)–Gajeel riposted with a lightning-quick Iron Dragon Pillar. Chuckling darkly as the end of the, well, _iron pillar_ connected with Natsu's gut, he retracted it, preparing to follow up with a new move of his own.

The dragon interception magic of "Dragon Slayer" was, at its core, a very dynamic school of magic. There were, of course, limitations to how "Dragon Slayer" could be applied depending on the essential properties of the particular element its user was alligned to, resulting in a considerable amount of diversity between the various elemental branches and schools, but at the end of the day the only significant limits to a Dragon Slayer's abilities and moveset were their imagination and their magic power. Due to this, and the very "evolve or die" and "survival of the fittest" mindsets typically possessed by Dragon Slayers, most of the spells and attacks a Dragon Slayer used (aside from a few basics) would be of his or her own invention.

Even for Dragon Slayers of roughly equal skill, the number of unique techniques in their respective arsenals could vary significantly. Natsu, for instance, possessed a great number of attacks–so many that attempting to list them all from memory would be an exercise in madness–but almost all of them were merely simple variations of "light bodypart on fire, hit enemy with bodypart". Gajeel, on the other hand, only had a few attacks, but each one fulfilled a specific niche.

Natsu, still reeling from the heavy blow to the gut, was barely prepared to defend himself when Gajeel charged at him, covering the distance between the two of them in less than a second. With only fractions of a second to react, Natsu reflexively raised his arms and crossed them in an 'X' over his chest, as well as firmly planting his legs in the dirt and widening his stance to lower his center of gravity. He was still nearly knocked to the ground by the black-haired, self-styled punk tackling him.

Gajeel tightly wrapped his arms around the smaller Dragon Slayer's torso, squeezing against him as he focused magic power into his skin. He smirked, looking Natsu right in the eye as he said, "_Iron Dragon's Hell Sarcophagus_[**2**]."

Natsu's eyes widened as he felt spikes erupt from Gajeel's body and arms, stabbing into him like he was in a makeshift iron maiden. He howled in agony as the large spikes punched through his torso, opening gaping wounds that on another, less hardy individual would have meant certain death. But even with his body's particular vulnerability to Dragon Slayer magic–a logical result of possessing a dragon's constitution–the amount of hormones surging through his system in response to the annual _URGE_ caused the incredible pain to be forgotten under a torrent of adrenaline, endorphines, and ethernanos.

He howled again. But this one was not a cry of pain, no. It was an enraged roar, a bestial shout of defiance that shook the very earth and sky with its strength and volume. A massive gout of flame erupted from his body, and Gajeel was forced to leap back to avoid being incinerated by the intense blaze, the bloodied iron spikes retracting back into his body. Natsu, standing in the center of the roaring pillar of fire, ROARED and lunged headfirst at his opponent.

"_Dragon Slayer Secret Art..._" he began, the force of his dash carrying him towards his target with the speed of a human cannonball. His pupils were no more than thin slits, and dark red scales covered his skin.

Gajeel felt his heart drop into his stomach in the split seconds before impact. _'No fuckin' way... There's no fuckin' way that Salamander's magic power is strong enough for him to activate THAT without eating a bunch of fire first...!'_ he thought in disbelief.

"..._Crimson-Lotus Exploding Flame Blade!-!-!_" Natsu finished with a great bellow, the force of impact kicking up a great cloud of dust and gravel as the intense Flames of Emotion enveloping his body exploded outwards, amplifying the destructive power of the attack by several orders of magnitude.

Lucy's eyes widened at this sight from where she and the others were observing the two from within the safe zone set up by Fried's runes. She was, reluctantly, at Happy's behest, dressed in a skimpy "dragon-girl" outfit that was basically just a tiny, scale patterned bikini and a small decorative hairpiece fashioned to look like a stylized dragon's cranial crest and horns. Also, she had noted somewhat bitterly upon first meeting up with the others, she was the only one dressed up like this. Everyone else was just dressed normally.

"I don't believe it..." she murmured, futilely attempting to peer through the cloud of dust and smoke. "I mean, I know Natsu's strong, but... this is just so much more..." she trailed off, unable to say anything further, so thoroughly was she overawed.

Erza nodded, understanding without having to hear any more than that. "Yes, Natsu is strong. ...but something like activating Dragon Force without a significant external boost to his magic power–like what he would getting from eating a strong flame–would normally be beyond his present abilities."

Levy, having overheard this, reluctantly tore her gaze from the cloud of smoke that was obscuring everything in the area of the fight to look at Erza questioningly. "_'Normally'_?" she parroted curiously.

"Yes," Erza explained, "Normally that would be impossible for him, but with how his body is right now, his strength, among other things, is greatly increased."

Levy's mouth noiselessly formed an 'o'. "I get it..." she muttered. "Since it's like mating season or whatever for him and Gajeel, their bodies are all pumped full of hormones and stuff..."

"Yes," Mirajane said, joining the conversation, "that's the basic idea. This time of year is mating season for dragons–or at least it used to be back in ancient times–so Natsu and Gajeel are under a lot of stress and frustration."

Lucy blanched. "Frustration...? As in, _sexual_ frustration...?"

"Mm-hm," Mirajane cheerfully hummed in affirmation.

The color drained from Lucy's face as she looked down at her state of dress. She gulped. "Is that why you and Happy told me to dress like this...?"

Erza and Mirajane were pointedly silent.

All color fled from Lucy's face, and she backed away from the others, holding her hands up defensively. "Whoah, whoah, whoah, I did NOT sign up for _THIS!_" she yelped, suddenly feeling even more exposed than she already was.

"Don't worry," Erza belatedly reassured her. "We would never do something so uncouth as prostituting a fellow mage of Fairy Tail," she explained. "That would be disgraceful, dishonorable, and disgusting."

Lucy blinked. "Eh? ...Then, why...?"

"It was a prank, I think," Wendy interjected helpfully, while looking immensely disappointed that the fight between the two male Dragon Slayers was no longer visible.

"Oh yes, it certainly must have been a prank," Evergreen agreed, a magic camcorder held up to her eye as she glanced at Lucy. "I mean, that outfit looks positively _hideous_ on you."

"Eh, it ain't that bad," Bickslow said with a shrug. "I think she looks pretty good like that, eh Fried?"

Fried did not answer, but Lucy noted that there was a slight tinge of pink to his cheeks. At last he said. "...Well, regardless of how she looks in the outfit, it was definitely a prank."

Happy, standing a little to left of the girls and guys, covered his mouth with his paws, his cheeks puffing out comically as he snickered over the proceedings. A sound suspiciously similar to the words "cosplay queen" slipped through his paws as he quietly laughed.

Lucy's eyes narrowed and she rounded on the blue Exceed, spitting fire in her anger. "You goddamn stupid cat!" she roared, lunging for the object of her ire. "I'll skin you and hang your no-good hide over my mantle!" she swore.

"Waaaaahhh!" Happy whined, running away from the enraged blonde, "Draco-Lucy is being mean to meeee!"

"Don't call me Draco-Lucy, dammit!"

Levy chuckled at this scene. "Excellent work getting into character, Lucy~!" she teased, causing her friend to grow even more flustered.

"Dammit, Levy!" Lucy hissed, her face bright red as she continued to chase the mischievous blue feline-creature, "Not you too!"

Levy simply smiled coyly and gave the worked-up blonde a playful wink.

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><p>[<strong>1<strong>]: This is not-so-subtle reference to the _Dragon Ball_ series by Akira Toriyama. If you don't get it, Natsu's attack name, in Japanese (assuming I'm not getting something hilariously wrong, what with my highly fragmentary knowledge of the language), would be "_ka-ry__ū__-no-ka-me-ha-me-ha_". I had also thought of going with "_ka-ry__ū__-ha-me-ha_" meaning "fire-dragon-destruction-wave" (I _think_), or even the very slight variation "_ka-ry__ū__-no-ha-me-ha_" meaning "fire-dragon's destruction-wave".

... ... ...oh for the love of... why am I even obsessing over this, anyways? It's just a freaking attack name...

[**2**]: An interesting note to make! Sarcophagus essentially means "Flesh Eater" in Greek... or is it Latin? ...I should prolly look that up...

*Does a quick search*

... ... ... huh, whaddya know. It's technically both.

"_via Latin from Greek _sarkophagos _ flesh-devouring; from the type of stone used, which was believed to destroy the flesh of __corpses"_ [source: dictionary dot reference dot com / browse / sarcophagus]

" _"stone__ coffin," 1601, from L. sarcophagus, from Gk. sarkophagos "limestone used for coffins," lit. "flesh-eating," in reference to the supposed action of this type of limestone (quarried near Assos in Troas) in quickly decomposing the body, from sarx (gen. sarkos) "flesh" (see __sarcasm) + phagein "to eat" (see -phagous__). The stone sense was the earliest in Eng,; meaning "stone coffin, often with inscriptions or decorative carvings" is recorded from 1705. The L. word, shortened in V.L. to *sarcus, is the source of Fr. cercueil, Ger. Sarg "coffin," Du. zerk __"tombstone._" " [source: same as above]

The more you know.

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><p><strong>AN: The last part of this entry ended up going through a few revisions as I had difficulty getting a good ending for it in its first form and its second form was lost to the ether. To get it to end well, I ended up having to excise a line of discussion that, while containing some decent enough material, would have left me with no really good options for ending the entry while it was still even a remotely reasonable length. The material I ended up removing contained a discussion the gist of which was that Erza, the previous year, had tried sleeping with Natsu herself to help him deal with the "itch" only to end up getting a little, er, banged up in the heat of the moment, leading into Levy wondering (very awkwardly) about what this meant for her and Gajeel, and it was cute and all but wasn't going anywhere. **

**Honestly, the only thing I really regret about not being able to include that section in the finished product was that nobody would able to see this gem from the conversation.**

**" **_"... Correct," Erza remarked, "[...] But he IS boisterous, and a bit rough, and, well, ah... let's just say that, afterwards, my doctor told to wear protection next time."_

_Levy blanched. "You don't mean he got you...!" she started to say, only to stop. "Wait, he said for you to wear protection? That's odd... isn't it usually the guy who's told to do that...?"_

_Erza blushed, shaking her head slightly. "Ah, no, not THAT kind of protection..."_

_Levy frowned. "No? ... But, then, what...?"_

_"She means protection as in armor," Mirajane supplied._

_Levy choked. "**Armor?-!**" she exclaimed in disbelief. _**"**

**... except that now they can. Provided they read the author's note, at any rate. *Shrug***

**TTFN and R&R!**


	7. A Notice, From Me to My Readers

**A Notice, From Me to My Readers**

By

EvilFuzzy9

Our dog, Treasure, passed away last Thursday evening on 4/5/2011, just a few days before Easter, around 6:00 or 7:00 PM. She was, I dunno, at least ten, eleven years old, maybe even older. A sweet, dear old golden retriever thoroughbred, she was really starting to show her age near the end but nonetheless still betrayed at times a stubbornly lingering spark of vibrant energy from her youth that refused to be extinguished until the very final hours of her life, when she could nary muster the energy or the strength to shift herself more than a little bit this way or that way.

I was the only one home at the time it happened, though both my brothers and my father had been there earlier and all remarked on how Treasure was just lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway next to her raised food and water dishes. It was quiet, and I was on the computer like I always was, when suddenly I heard thudding and rasping coming from the hallway. I saw Treasure slowly sort of convulsing on the floor, her body shuddering with every clearly labored breath. So I went over and comforted her, talking softly to her and alternately petting her and scratching her ears and sorta rubbing her tummy.

After a while, it started to settle down, so I got up and went back to my room briefly, checked up on my laptop, then I went back through the hallway past Treasure and into the living room to turn off the TV that had been left on by my youngest brother when he had left for work (a flatscreen that my parents had finally picked up a week or so earlier after having had it on lay away for a good while). I don't quite know or remember what was on at the time–even though I absent-mindedly half-watched it for a few seconds while I looked for the remote to turn the TV off–but I think it might have one of those pawn shop shows, based what I can recall of what I saw.

But anyways, when I went back into the hallway to check up on Treasure and make sure she was doing alright, I got down to pet her only to notice that she didn't seem to be moving. At all. So, getting a little nervous, I tried a number of things to check on her vitals based on what little I could recall of first aid from my boy scout days, clumsily feeling for a pulse and listening for breathing or a heartbeat. That last one was inconclusive, though I imagine it was solely because by that point my own heartbeat was fairly thundering in my ears as the conclusion became clearer. As a final test, if only because I was, while not exactly hysterical, still rather distressed and partly refusing to believe what was happening because _no this can't be happening no no nononono it can't be real I must be mistaken she's okay, really, she is, she just HAS to be...!_, I held my hand an inch or so from her nose to see if I could maybe feel her breath and _prove that she's okay and you're just being a worrywart, Tim._

I felt nothing.

As it registered in my mind that Treasure was _deaddeaddeaddead_, I numbly got out my cell phone and dialed my parents. I can't remember exactly who I tried first, but I do know that my mother was the one to answer. For a moment, I was unable to talk, the words caught in my throat. I was unable to speak, but still I forced myself to, and a few seconds later, standing over Treasure's motionless form, I got out the words, "Mom... this is Tim... I don't think Treasure's breathing."

Naturally, she responded by saying that she and dad would be home as soon as they could, cutting short their weekly night out. With that said and done with, I mumbled an empty farewell and hung up.

I don't know how long I stood over Treasure, just... just staring at her, watching her and doing my best not to think. I think an hour or more may have passed before I finally wrenched myself away from her and sat down on the couch, grabbing my PSP and numbly turning it on and reading some fanfic or other on it.

Eventually, I heard my parents' car come into the driveway, and I got up. They came in, and I showed them over to Treasure. My mother, who is a hospice nurse and has been working as an RN in some manner or other for over well over twenty years, knelt over Treasure and checked her over, sadly remarking that except for a few spots where some heat still lingered, Treasure was completely cold. After that, there was crying to some extent on all our parts as we wrapped Treasure up in a bed sheet (my mother had refused to put her in a garbage bag, and neither I or my father had the heart, or perhaps rather the lack thereof, to disagree with her on that) and sadly said our final goodbyes before I and my father lifted Treasure, wrapped up in the sheet, and carried her down to the basement freezer (which my father had cleared out to make room for Treasure while my mother and I wrapped her up in the sheet) to keep her in until we could bring her in to be cremated.

At the time of writing this, Treasure has not yet to my knowledge been cremated. I do not have the heart to go down to the freezer and check in order to verify this, so I am not entirely one hundred percent certain, but that is immaterial to my point.

Anyways, because of this, and the fact that my medicine, specifically my d-amphetamine, once again ran out well before the pharmacy was able to refill it, I have not had the will or focus to work on any of my writing. Instead, I ended up purchasing and downloading at least four different games over the course of the week for my PSP (_Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Impact_,_ Class of Heroes_, _Corpse Party Musume_, and _Dead or Alive Paradise_, though so far I'm not too impressed with that last one) and the first five episodes of some anime I've heard of called _Master of Martial Hearts_ (though I ended up not having enough room left on the 5GB memory card I'd bought a number of weeks back so that I'd be able to download _Final Fantasy VII_, since the 1GB memory card I had been using up until then simply did not have remotely enough room on it for the game which measured in at something like a whopping one thousand three hundred something megabytes, if my memory serves right).

I finally got my prescription refilled yesterday, which is how I was able to sit down and write up this notification for you all, and I've mostly come to grips with Treasure's passing (in part thanks to the continuing presence of our cat [well, technically my younger brother's cat, but he shares a flat with two friends and their baby so he doesn't really have room for her and so she lives in the house with us] Bella and the shih tzu-poodle mix puppies Princess and Precious), but I'm not sure when I'll get back to writing fics. Depending on how the cookies crumble, my well of inspiration might either dry up, or I might ultimately get sent into a fevered writing frenzy similar to what ended up happening mid-to-late last summer where I officially renewed and redoubled my work on ONNHc a few weeks after my uncle Scott passed away from cancer, resulting in a string of several 10k+ word chapters that only petered when I started working at Hong Kong (the restaurant and buffet in my town that focuses on Chinese and Szechuan cuisine, not to be confused with the city in China).

So, basically, I might get back to writing and updating my fics as soon as tomorrow, or I might not get back to my fics until as late as three months from now. Hopefully it doesn't take that long, and honestly it probably won't, but you never know for sure.

Well, it feels good to get that monkey off my back, so to speak. Hopefully I'll catch you all again with a proper update sooner rather than later.

Ta-ta for now, folks~


	8. Play

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Seventh Entry:**

**Play**

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><p><strong>AN: This chapter is just silly. Silly and short. There are no other words.  
><strong>

**Also, notice that this is one of my few fics with a title page image.  
><strong>

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><p>Lean muscles tensed. Piercing dark eyes locked onto their target. A gaping toothy maw opened up, the hot breath escaping it causing the air to ripple and distort. Like a tiger on the hunt, the predator stalked his prey, hunger evident in his expression.<p>

He was silent. His tread was light and cautious, graceful and dangerous. Like a panther lithely slipping through the dense foliage of the jungle, the hunter silently shadowed his target. His eyes were like burning coals, his teeth large and white and _sharp_. On all fours, he slowly but surely followed his mark, his limbs long and limber as they smoothly stretched out and carried its body forward.

One and a half some hundred pounds of hungry predator stealthily pursued its prey, keen eyes watching intently as it waited patiently for an opening to pounce.

... ... ... _There! _

With a bone-rattling roar, he struck, shooting forth like a streak of light. It was instantaneous, like a spring being released. He fell upon his chosen prey with all the speed and force of a lightning bolt, like a falcon swooping down from the clouds to snatch a hare from the grass.

"GYAAHAHAHAHA!" Natsu Dragneel cackled uproariously as he latched onto the back of his target, one Lucy Heartfilia, knocking her onto the floor.

"WAAH!" Lucy wailed as she landed face first on the floor, her chest luckily cushioning her fall. "DAMMIT, NATSU!" she cried, "GET OFF MY BACK!"

"HAHAHAHAHA! NEVER!" Natsu replied, sitting up on top of Lucy's back. "I'M KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!"

"YOU'RE HEAVY!" Lucy moaned loudly, fingernails scratching at the floor as she tried in vain to crawl out from her overbearing friend. "GEROFF!"

"NO WAY! I'M A DRAGON!" Natsu howled, "_AWWRROOOOOOOOO!_"

"NO, YOU'RE CRAZY!" Lucy shouted in reply, face scrunched up and tears comically streaming down her cheeks. "A LUNATIC! A GODDAMN MADMAN!"

"I AM NATSU!" Natsu roared energetically, bursting into flames, "HEAR ME ROOOAAARRR!"

"KYAAAA!" Lucy shrieked. "OW! OW! OWOWOW! HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!"

"NEEEVEEEERR!"

**TTFN and R&R!**


	9. Mourning

**Instincts Draconian**

A _Fairy Tail_ Drabble Collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

**Eighth Entry:**

**Mourning**

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><p><strong>AN: This entry is a lot angstier and WAFFier than most of the others, and it has a fair bit of rather obvious Natsu x Wendy.**

**Also, in response to SoMinniac CRBNlo's review (since it was anonymous, and I can't reply), which said:**

...wouldn't it be "Draconian Instincts" instead of "Instincts Draconian" you basically typed insincts dragon, wouldn't it make more sence to have it as dragon instincts?...meh whatever GREAT collection of drabbles xD cant wait till u update :)

**I say:**

**Well, no. Not really. Firstly, it's kind of a (rather poorly thought out) play on words, since while 'draconian' LOOKS like it means 'of or pertaining to dragons', it actually means 'strict or harsh, as in laws'. Secondly, and more crucially, _Instincts Draconian_ is an intentional, meaningful acronym of 'id', as in _'the part of the psyche, residing in the unconscious, that is the source of instinctive impulses that seek satisfaction in accordance with the pleasure principle and are modified by the ego and the superego before they are given overt expression_.' I suppose it's a bit out there, perhaps, but I think it's fitting, as far as titles go. :P_  
><em>**

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><p>The sky was endless. She could soar forever and never find its edge. The heavens stretched out into infinity, even into the domain of the moon and stars. And it was her domain. She was <em>tenry<em>_ū_, the heavenly wyrm, the sky dragon. She was supreme, reigning over all things beneath the bended sky.

She was Wendy Marvell, daughter of the sky dragon Grandine, and sole inheritor of all her draconic magicks. And though she had no wings with which to fly, her heart soared all the same through the skies above. That was where she truly belonged.

Long, deep blue hair was blown back; a yellow, airy sundress fluttered in the wind. Wide, bright eyes stared unblinkingly into the gale. Arms were held out at her sides, palms face-forward and fingers splayed.

Wendy stood perfectly still as she felt the wind brush over her, wrapping her in a cool but comforting embrace. She imagined it was her adoptive mother, Grandine, wrapping the wind around her in a blanket, like how it used to be when she was younger. She imagined Grandine had never left, that she was still living with the magnificent sky dragon in the distant mountains far removed from civilization.

Though she had made many friends in the years since Grandine had departed, both at Cait Shelter where the spirit of the Nirvit wizard Robaul had cared for and protected her, and at Fairy Tail where she had found others like her for the first time in her life, Wendy could not help but miss the only mother she could ever remember having. It was painful, being abandoned, but she was certain that there _must _have been a very good reason for Grandine to leave her, there simply _had to be_... If only she knew what it was...

Wendy let out a long, weary sigh, eyes dimming. In spite of all the new friends she had made, all the adventures she'd had with them, there were still times when she found herself falling into depression. She missed Grandine, and missed the friends she'd had back at Cait Shelter, even if they had been but mere illusions... She knew on some level that it wasn't healthy to dwell on such things, but there were still times when she could not help but feel overwhelmed by these feelings of loss and sorrow.

And when that happened, it felt too painful to watch the smiling, happy faces of her fellow guildmembers. So at those times, she slipped away from the crowd and sought out solitude. When she was alone, it was easier, somewhat...

"Hey, Wendy," came a quiet but familiar voice from right beside her. The young dragon slayer nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of it, and she whirled around to see Natsu standing there and smiling at her.

"Na... Natsu!" she yelped, looking up into the salmon-haired fire mage's dark, squinty-looking eyes. "Wha-wha-what are you doing here?" she stammered nervously, her face bright red as she realized how close she was to the handsome and playful dragon slayer's bare chest.

Natsu grinned sheepishly at Wendy, scratching the back of his head and chuckling boyishly.

"Heh heh, well, I was gonna ask you the same thing," he said, his wide smile showing off the exceptionally large and sharp canines that were common among dragon slayers.

"Oh," Wendy said weakly, shyly looking away from Natsu. "I... just wanted to be alone for a little while..."

Natsu's grin faltered slightly.

"Ah... Well, Charle was looking for you," he told her.

Wendy drooped.

"She was worried about me..." she mumbled, sitting down on the edge of the .

"Of course she was!" Natsu said brightly. "She's always worrying about you, haha!"

Sighing, Wendy said, "Yes, she does... She must have been terrified for me, disappearing all of a sudden like that..."

Natsu smiled, playfully clapping Wendy on the back and nearly knocking her over.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Wendy," he told her warmly. "That's just how Charle is. She's _always_ tryin' to protect you from stuff."

Wendy, briefly staggering slightly from the impact of Natsu's calloused palm on her upper back, looked up at the rosy haired dragon slayer, the damp tear tracks on her face glistening in the moonlight. She smiled slightly at him, unable to stay sad as she looked at his wide, toothy, cocky grin.

He had a very contagious smile, she had to admit.

"Do you really think so...?" she whispered, looking up into his twinkling dark eyes eyes and feeling herself being drawn into them.

"Of course," Natsu said softly, his grin more subdued in its size now, but by no means any less emotive.

He leaned in, crouching down so he was roughly at eye level with Wendy. His lips were coming closer as he drew near, and the Sky Maiden's heart fluttered. She closed her eyes, puckering her lips expectantly...

THWACK. Natsu headbutted her.

Wendy crumpled up and fell over, eyes swirling comically.

"Cheer up!" Natsu exhorted exuberantly (and obliviously) as he tried (and failed) to comfort Wendy the only way he knew how: by instigating a fight. That was the Fairy Tail way!

... unfortunately, Wendy was still just a newbie to the most infamous light guild in Fiore, and a bit of a pacifist besides, so naturally that didn't exactly pan out too well.

Let nobody say that Natsu was known for his forethought. Or his tact.

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><p><strong> AN: Okay, I'll admit that this chapter was less about dragon slayer instincts and more about gratuitous Natsu/Wendy fluff, but there ARE species, such as elephants, which are known to actually **_**grieve**_** dead and/or departed members of their herds. **

**TTFN and R&R!**


End file.
